OPI Texas - the bottles and the skittles

Another one of the infamous Swedish OPI press release parties took place in Stockholm yesterday, at a southern style inspired joint called Saddle & Sabre. Cammi and I was there. Though the place was crowded, we managed to get a quick look at some of the products, and were like always warmly welcomed by the girls who work for Kings Hair, the Swedish distributor of OPI stuff. The main event was of course a presentation of the upcoming spring collection Texas, but there was also a grand, crafty display of the Katy Perry polishes, which you have already seen (they were tastefully thrown onto a huge barrel topped with candy, and since I already had the polishes, I stuffed my mouth with a shitload of the sweets instead). Lone Star beer (watery, tasteless stuff - please excuse my overly sensitive Swedish tastebuds) along with supposedly Texan food was served for everyone to sample - tender beef with hickory sauce, chicken legs, jalapeño cheese, nachos and dip sauces... I do like polishes, but I also happen to be slightly enthusiastic about food, so this made me happy.

Anyway, you know I really like the girls at Kings Hair (hej Sara!), and they always get creative with the samples packaging. This time: brown paper bags, stamped with silvery stars, completed by a string with a dangling lasso on it! Very cute.


However. This is what the outskirts of Stockholm looks like today:

Far from Texan spirits, us Swedes have to endure snow, more snow, and most of all lack of sun and general light. Therefore, today I can only offer you flash lit bottles and kitchen sink fluorescent lit nails. I tried to make all photos as true to real colors as possible, but some where really hard to deal with. At least this is a first glance...

All swatches are three coats each.

First up: Don't Mess With OPI (green creme), Suzi Loves Cowboys (brown creme), San Tan-tonio (beige creme), and Austin-tatious Turquoise (sheer green base with blue shimmer).

Here we first have the three cremes of the collection. They all require three coats. The green Don't Mess With OPI (strong statement here) isn't terribly unique in any way, but I'm too lazy to pull out my huge dupe search machinery today. At least it doesn't make me jump with joy. The brown Suzi Loves Cowboys is actually a very nice color, and one I can imagine myself wearing, despite its name. San Tan-tonio is probably meant to be the nude of this collection, however of course not suitable for girls of Northern European origin. I'm very curious of how this one will look on someone of medium complexion, say of Latino heritage. Looking forward to that! And Austin-tatious Turquoise, the most interesting shade of the collection in my opinion, has beautiful shimmer, and could have been a new and unique approach to the turquoise or teal color range by its compliment colored base, but the green is too thin and doesnt really make any effort to contrast the blue shimmer. You can tell how sheer it is on my free edge. It mostly looks discoloured.

Austin-tatious Turquoise.

Next: It's Totally Fort Worth It (silvery grey frost with little pink shimmer specks), I Vant to Be A-Lone Star (baby blue with silver shimmer), Do You Think I'm Tex-y? (berry/pink jelly), and Houston We Have a Purple (berry/beet jelly).

It's Totally Fort Worth It is one I believe has been the most anticipated due to a described originality, and yes, the little pink flecks are beautiful (see close up below), but it's frosty and leaves terrible streaks. I Vant to Be A-Lone Star is okay, but goes on a little streaky and doesn't even out until the third coat. The two latter are not by any means color accurate. The bottle photo shows more accuracy. They are both pretty boring in my taste. Houston We Have A Purple isn't really purple, it's beet colored.

It's Totally Fort Worth It.

I Vant to Be A-Lone Star.

Last: Too Hot Pink to Hold 'Em (pink jelly), Y'All Come Back Ya Hear? (orange jelly), Big Hair... Big Nails (coral jelly), and Guy Meets Gal-veston (coral jelly).

Here I found that the fluorescent light in my bathroom actually worked out a lot better... Do you know what's interesting? The jellies of the collection just keep getting more and more sheer the higher the number. The two shown in the previous swatch photo are the most opaque, but here, we just get more and more visible nail line the closer we get to the pinky. Too Hot Pink to Hold 'Em is a quite nice bright, but deep pink jelly, though you can still see a few discolorations through three coats. I will definitely wear this though - when my nails are in a somewhat good condition. Personally I'm not too keen on orange polishes, but I guess Y'All Come Back Ya Hear? is pretty nice for being one. Although, a lot of visible nail line still after the three coats. The last two, Big Hair... Big Nails and Guy Meets Gal-veston are so similar that I had to double check the labels in between every application and bottle grouping and what not. The latter is a tad more cool toned than the first, but apart from that, you can just grab any one of them, if you're into these coral jellies.



Well. These swatches are almost a waste of bandwith. I know they are terrible. And I can't blame the weather alone. I also blame the collection itself. It's uninspiring, maybe even boring. There, I said it.

As you have already seen, the collection consists of three cremes, three shimmers, and six jellies. One green, one blueish, and a shitload of polishes in the pink range, along with some lighter ones thrown in. Frankly, it's getting predictable. We're already used to the mandatory reds (not a single true red here though! - a bit of a shock), but it now seems there are also always one green and one blue present, just as obligatory as the reds and the sheers. One blue. One green. Always. Suzi thinks she has found a recipe on how to keep the connaisseurs calm and nice.

I'd also like to address the opacity matter. I mentioned it in my review of the Katy Perry collection, and it seems to be one of OPI's new trademarks: terribly sheer colors. I know someone who works in the nail care industry who frequently says, that if a polish doesn't come out good in two coats, she won't like or use it. That kind of discriminates all of OPI's polishes lately. Not even red toned colors are opaque enough anymore. What happened?!

Although there are many of us who like a good jelly, and I think the awareness of the existence of the finish along with the fanbase is growing, throwing out a huge group of poorly pigmented ones could be a mistake. I'm very interested in hearing how others will receive these newbies! Are they good, or are they bad? Am I only overly critical? They are cute, really cute, like lollipops, but will people have the patience to apply these nicely? I might add that I found the formulas on the jellies a bit runny, and they pooled a lot on me, however, the scarce pigmentation made them easy to clean up...

This is not a complete bashing. But it's definitely not a rave. I think the now infamous "Son, I am disappoint" picture would fit nicely in here. Wait...

There. I fixed it.

Now I'm looking forward to Suzi getting her brains checked and thereafter starting to invent really awesome colors again, as opposed to only nice ones.

Favourite, fitting English (French?) word of the moment for a Swede:
ennui -noun archaic boredom
Sigh.